100 Fun and Lucrative Summer Jobs for Teens

It’s almost time for summer, which means it’s time to think about summer jobs.

If you’re a teen looking for work — or if you’ve got a teen in your house who should be looking for work — here’s a list of 100 summer jobs for teens.

Teen jobs traditionally pay around minimum wage or a little bit more, so expect to earn anywhere between $2,000-$5,000 (pretax) for a summer’s worth of work, depending on the type of job you get and whether you work full or part time.

You can also, of course, create your own job — and we’ve got plenty of resources to help you there.

We’ve divided the jobs into categories to help you quickly find the type of job that might be most interesting to you. What will you do for work this summer?

Sitting: Children, Houses, Pets and Plants

Babysitting is a classic teen job, but there are a lot more opportunities for teens to earn money by helping friends and neighbors care for kids, pets and even houses!

The Jobs

1. Mother’s Helper: A good option for younger teens, this is a great way to get started as a sitter.

Watch or play with children while a parent is in the home getting other work done.

2. Babysitter: Watch babies or children while their parents are away. You need CPR training and a safe sitter course, both of which are available through the Red Cross.

Becoming a family’s regular sitter can often put a lot of money in your bank account, since many parents will need full-time childcare while their kids are out of school all summer!

3. Pet Sitter: Watch and feed pets while the owners are away. This gig can last anywhere from a long weekend to a few weeks or more.

4. Dog Walker: Walk dogs while families are at work or on vacation. You must love dogs — and be willing to scoop up their poop!

5. Plant Sitter: It’s not a very high-paying gig, but every dollar counts! Water plants while owners are away.

Instead of saying “I charge $10 an hour” for this one, expect that a family will offer you something like $25-50 for taking care of their plants over a period of time.

6. House Sitter: For the older teens, this is a great job for summers in between college. You get paid to live in someone else’s house while they are away.

This job might include pet or plant sitting as part of the job description; it will probably include light cleaning and maintenance so the owners don’t come home to dust and mildew.

What You Can Earn

There’s generally a “market rate” in your area for sitting jobs, and it could range from $10 an hour to $25 an hour depending on your location and your experience.

Talk to other sitters, or to parents in your area, to find out what’s reasonable. Don’t be afraid to negotiate for the rate you think you deserve!

How to Get the Jobs

A lot of these jobs are filled through word-of-mouth; a friend of your parents might be going on a trip and needs someone to feed the cat.

But be proactive! Put up flyers, put out the call on Facebook and make sure the adults you know are aware that you are ready and able to work.

Making: Turn Your Talents Into Cash

If you can make something that’s beautiful or useful, you’ve got yourself a job opportunity.

The Jobs

7. T-Shirt Designer: Have a knack for art and design? Want to turn your favorite TV characters’ names into a Helvetica T-shirt?

Start designing and selling T-shirts on sites like District Lines, Spreadshirt, Teespring or Etsy.

8. Seamstress or Tailor: If you can make and alter clothes, you’ve got a skill you can monetize.

9. Doll Designer: There’s a big market for customized dolls out there — maybe you saw the recent story of the woman who repainted Bratz dolls’ faces to look natural and makeup-free — so if you have a talent or interest here, start making and start selling!

10. Woodworker: Make chairs, crafts, walking sticks or other wood items and sell them on Etsy or in person.

Put up signs in your local area announcing your talent and seek out commissions.

11. Webcomic Artist: If you want to get started as a webcomic artist, there’s no time like the present.

It might take a few years to build up an audience willing to pay for books, T-shirts and other webcomic-related merchandise, but why not spend a summer developing your webcomic and seeing if this could be a career for you?

Emma T. Capps, for example, started her webcomic The Chapel Chronicles when she was 14, and now, at 17, she teaches comics workshops and her work is featured in Dark Horse Presents.

12. Photographer: Whether you take (and sell) stock photography, start a small business taking photos of weddings or babies, or even sell your iPhone photos, there are plenty of opportunities to make money with your camera.

What You Can Earn

You have the opportunity to set your own price for these gigs, but be aware more people are likely to buy an $18 T-shirt than they are a $45 T-shirt. Check out what other people are charging for similar items; custom dolls, for example, can easily sell for over $100 each on Etsy.

How to Get the Jobs

Tell your friends and family, post your work to social media sites and continue to promote your efforts every day.

Writing: A Penny — Or More — For Your Thoughts

If you are at all familiar with books like Eragon or The Duff, you know that teen writers are in demand — but you don’t have to be a novelist to get paid for your words.

The Jobs

13. Article Writer: Plenty of markets offer opportunities for teens to pitch and sell articles, personal essays and other work to online magazines and websites.

Check out teen blogs like Rookie, or visit the websites you read every day and look at their submission guidelines. You can even pitch The Penny Hoarder!

14. Local Newspaper Reporter: If you live in a town or neighborhood with a small local newspaper, there might be an opportunity for you to work as a junior reporter.

This could be an internship or it could be a paying gig — and you won’t find out until you ask.

15. Blogger: Popular blogs make money through ads, selling merchandise and turning blog content into books.

Start your own blog and build your audience, or consider paid guest post opportunities at other blogs, starting with our list of 7 blogs that pay $100+ per post. When you pitch editors, don’t emphasize your age — instead, focus on your idea and why it’s a great fit for their site.

17. Transcriptionist: If you are skilled at quickly transcribing audio or decoding somebody’s handwriting, look for transcription jobs online.

Ask your parents to see if they know anyone who needs transcription done — I spent one teenage summer transcribing handwritten music for a family friend, and that’s the kind of job you’ll never see on an online job board!

18. Proofreader: Do you know when — and how — to use commas? Can you quickly identify misspelled words?

Look for proofreading companies that hire teens, or follow my transcription example and find an adult who needs a big document proofread with a careful eye.

What You Can Earn

Payment varies widely; expect about $25-100 for an article or a guest blog post.

Transcriptionist and proofreader gigs might earn around minimum wage or a few dollars more, depending on your experience and where you work.

Cleaning: Gather Your Singing Birds and Get Ready to Scrub

The Jobs

19. House Cleaner: Got a knack for getting dirt off surfaces? Look for house cleaning jobs in your area, or set out as a house-cleaning entrepreneur.

20. Hotel Housekeeper: Ever wonder who cleans up your room when you stay in a hotel? If you apply for this job, it could be you!

21. Pool Cleaner: Get the scum out of pools so people can enjoy their swims.

Look for companies hiring pool cleaners, since you’ll need special training to handle the chemicals involved.

22. Car Washer: Offer to wash cars for your friends’ parents or other adults you know, or see if the local car wash is accepting applications.

23. Janitorial Work: Cleaning toilets may not sound like fun, but it’s a paying job and you might end up with some really great stories!

24. Dishwasher: Do you like washing dishes? I spent part of one summer washing a lot of dishes in a college cafeteria. (Ask me if there were water fights.)

What You Can Earn

Minimum wage or a few dollars more.

How to Get the Jobs

Find out whether the business prefers in-person applications or online applications, and apply accordingly.

As with many teen jobs, if you know someone who already works there, your application might get a little boost.

Teaching: Train Scholars, Earn Dollars

Tutoring and teaching younger children is another classic teen job. Whether you are a pianist or a pre-Calc expert, there is a tutoring opportunity for you.

The Jobs

25. Music Teacher: I taught piano lessons as a teenager, and it was a great way to make money.

If you play the piano or another instrument, you’ll find opportunities to teach kids about Middle C, Every Good Boy Does Fine and other fundamentals of music.

26. Dance Teacher: If you are a talented dancer, see if you can provide lessons to neighborhood kids, support instructors at a community center or work as a teacher’s assistant at your local dance studio.

27. Art Teacher: Put on your paint shirt and teach kids how to put a brush to canvas. Or get out the clay and have fun sculpting!

29. Conversational English Tutor: Help peers, younger children or senior citizens learn English and practice conversational speaking.

30. SAT/PSAT Tutor: Who better to hire as a SAT/PSAT tutor than someone who just took the tests?

31. Swimming Instructor: Help kids improve their butterfly strokes, or simply help them overcome their fears of putting their heads in the water!

As with babysitting, you’ll need to be fully CPR trained. Visit your local swimming pool and ask about job opportunities.

32. Riding Instructor: Start young children on a life-long love of horses by working as a riding instructor.

If this job appeals to you, you’re probably already familiar with the local stables, so ask how you can apply for an instructor job.

What You Can Earn

As with babysitting, there is probably a tutoring market rate in your area.

You could earn anywhere from $10-$50 an hour, depending on your skills, expertise and ability to promote yourself and negotiate.

How to Get the Jobs

Some of these jobs, like swimming and riding instructor, require applications and interviews. Others, like piano teacher or art teacher, you can create yourself.

If you are putting out your shingle as the best oboe or Algebra teacher in town, work on promoting yourself to people you know, putting up flyers in places where parents gather and making sure everyone on social media knows that you are ready to teach!

Performing: Turn Those Stars in Your Eyes Into Dollar Signs

If you like being on stage, we’ve got some job ideas that you are going to love.

The Jobs

There’s no guarantee you’ll go viral, but if you are interested in making YouTube videos, why not give it a try?

34. Vine Creator: You probably knew — and your parents didn’t — that there are plenty of teens making money with six-second Vine videos. Many of them make money via paid product placement or sponsored Vines.

35. Band Member: Yes, it is possible to spend your summer starting a band, writing songs, making a few GarageBand demo tracks and playing gigs. It takes a lot of work to hustle for gigs and sell merch afterwards, so be prepared.

36. Event Pianist: Can you play soft, unobtrusive jazz music for an hour or two at a time? Offer your services as an event pianist for art openings, wine tastings and parties, and get ready to make some beautiful background music.

This was another one of my many teenage jobs, so I know the gigs are out there!

What You Can Earn

An event pianist might bring in $100 for the evening plus tips, depending where you live. Always put a tip jar on the piano!

A talented magician can bring in $150-$500 an hour, so practice your coin tricks!

YouTuber, Vine star and podcaster are all dependent on how popular your media becomes, so get ready to put out a lot of new content on a regular schedule and promote, promote, promote.

How to Get the Jobs

Some of these jobs, like party princess, actor or pit performer, might require auditions and applications. Others, like podcaster, band member or magician, require you to develop and promote your own work.

The Great Outdoors: With the Sun on Your Face and Dollars in Your Pocket

If you like spending your summer days outside, there are plenty of ways to enjoy the beautiful weather and earn money at the same time.

The Jobs

This can be an entrepreneurial opportunity for you, too; talk to family friends, put up flyers and advertise yourself as the best teen lawn service in town.

47. Landscaping: This might include lawn maintenance, and might also include planting bushes and planning gardens.

You’ll probably want to work with a professional landscaping company, unless you are the rare teen with landscaping knowledge and experience.

48. Lifeguard: Wear a whistle and help kids practice water safety in and around swimming pools. CPR and lifeguard training are a must for this one, as you never know when a pool accident could happen.

49. Corn Detasseler: This is just what it sounds like: Go into cornfields and pull tassels off corn.

“Detasseling is tough,” says Pioneer. “It’s a hot, muddy and sweaty job, but it’s a great way to work for a few weeks in the summer and reap the financial reward. “

50. Apple Picker: Go into orchards and pick apples off trees. You might also get to make or serve doughnuts and cider to orchard visitors.

51. Agriculture Work: Corn detasseling and apple picking aren’t the only agriculture jobs that are available to teens.

Depending on what crops grow in your area, you might find all kinds of agriculture and harvesting opportunities. One person we talked to had a summer job as a kelp harvester!

52. Construction Work: Look for construction jobs in your area that hire teens.

Some types of construction jobs are only available to people over 18, but others are appropriate for younger teens. Check out OSHA’s Young Workers in Construction site to learn more about job opportunities.

53. Camp Counselor: Sing camp songs, teach crafts and become a kid’s hero for the summer.

These kinds of jobs fill up far in advance, so if you missed the application period for this summer, put it on your to-do list for next year.

54. Sign Spinner: You’ve seen them on street corners or on YouTube, spinning and flipping their signs. If you’d like a job where you can stand on a corner and rock out with a sign all day, look for sign-spinning jobs in your area and get ready to demonstrate your skills.

Less interested in the dancing aspect? Look for sign-holder jobs, which are like sign-spinner jobs but don’t involve spinning.

55. Paper Route: Here’s another classic teen job. Check your local paper’s website to see if they have any open delivery positions.

Be aware that some delivery routes require you to have a car, and many delivery routes require very early morning wake-up times.

56. National Park Worker: If you live near a national park, you might already be aware of the summer jobs available there.

If not, visit the park’s website and look for job opportunities, or check out the National Park Service’s Jobs For Students.

60. Fair Worker: Fairs offer so many opportunities to earn money! Dress up and speak in Ye Olde English for a Renaissance Faire, or use your 4H skills to raise and sell an animal at a county or state fair.

Work the funnel cake machine, assist at the carousel or take tickets at the gate — the job opportunities are practically endless, though most fairs won’t last a full summer.

61. Sports Scorer/Timer/Referee: Summer sports leagues need people to keep track of scores, start and stop the clock and serve as referees.

What You Can Earn

These jobs will generally be in the “slightly above minimum wage” range, and can go even higher depending on the hiring organization.

Expect to earn up to $10 an hour as a corn detasseler, amusement park worker, lifeguard or camp counselor, according to Glassdoor. One of our Penny Hoarder writers reported that apple pickers can earn up to $28 an hour.

How to Get the Jobs

Go online and look for application instructions. As we noted earlier, having a friend who works there can often help your application.

Working for the Man: Would You Like Fries With That?

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the following jobs are teen summer staples.

The Jobs

62. Retail: Stock shelves, help customers find merchandise and ring them up at checkout.

These jobs often come with a nice employee discount, so look for retail gigs at your favorite stores.

The Jobs

Your job is to make their lives run smoothly and easily, so be prepared to demonstrate how you can make that happen.

69. Personal Organizer: This is kind of like a housecleaner job, except without the scrubbing. Help people decide what to keep, what to throw away and how to organize it all.

Study the KonMari method for inspiration, or create your own organizing system.

70. Computer Repair and Assistance: If you know how to get data off a crashed hard drive, or if you know how to help a family friend switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox, you have a job opportunity.

71. Mystery Shopper: This isn’t strictly an entrepreneurial job, since you’ll be working for a mystery shopping company, but we’re putting it here because this job lets you set your own hours and work as your own boss.

As a mystery shopper, you go into stores and ensure that, for example, employees are completing customer checkout steps correctly. The Penny Hoarder’s founder, Kyle Taylor, has a lot of mystery shopping experience, so read his guide to mystery shopping to learn more.

72. Crowdfunder: Want to get a big project off the ground, like an album, a novel or a robot dog? See if you can fund it on Kickstarter.

If you are under 18, you will need your parents to set up your Kickstarter accounts and accept the payments on your behalf. Read our Kickstarter guide first, to make sure you don’t accidentally lose money on your project!

If you’d like to do a series of smaller projects, such as writing and publishing one short story per week, check out Patreon. They welcome teen creators!

73. Startup Founder: Don’t like any of the jobs you see on this list? Make your own!

If you have an idea and a way to monetize it, launch your own summer startup and see how much money you can earn. Get a few friends involved and share the work — and the profits! Think how good “startup founder” will look on a college application.

75. Mobile Money-making Apps: Take a look at our list of money-making apps that let you earn money by playing games or doing tasks on your phone.

This won’t make you a lot of extra money, but you can make a few extra bucks!

76. App Developer: Making money by playing games on someone else’s app is fun, but you can make even more money by creating and developing your own apps and selling them on the iTunes App Store or Google Play.

77. Website Developer: If you know how to build a website from the ground up — or even how to use WordPress to create a unique and attractive website — you have a marketable skill.

Or put that skill to the test finding bugs in other people’s sites — this 10-year-old earned $10,000 for finding a bug on Instagram!

78. Theme Designer: Lots of people pay money for premium Tumblr themes. If you can design a beautiful theme, you might be able to make money by submitting it to Tumblr so other users can purchase it.

We confirmed with Tumblr that they’ll accept themes from teens, although if you’re under 18, you’ll need a parent/guardian signature on the contract. The more themes you create, the more opportunities you have to make sales.

What You Can Earn

Surveys and money-making apps are going to give you just enough extra cash to go to the movies once a month, unless you are willing to put in a lot of time and effort. S

elling apps on iTunes and Google Play might only make you a little bit of money depending on how popular your app becomes, but a completed app is great to add to your resume/portfolio and might help you get a developer job in the future.

You should be charging at least $25 per hour for website development (professionals charge $40-$75 an hour), and making money on a Tumblr theme depends on how many people buy your theme.

How to Get the Jobs

Sign up for survey sites or mobile money-making app sites. If you are a developer, you can make your own job.

Reseller: Becoming a Retail Arbitrage Expert

“Retail arbitrage” is when someone buys an item and then resells it at a profit. Believe it or not, this is a perfectly legit way to make money — ask Kyle Taylor, who resold books, toys and more to help pay his way through college!

The Jobs

79. Book Reseller: If you’ve already started college and have textbooks to sell, you can make good money reselling them to sites like BookScouter or Amazon Textbook Buyback.

If you don’t have textbooks to sell, start scouring used bookstores or yard sales for volumes in good condition, and then sell them online at a profit. Read our book reselling guide for tips on which books to resell, and which to leave on the shelf.

80. Toy Reseller: Just like book reselling, toy reselling involves selling toys online at a profit.

If you already have a bunch of old toys to sell, great! If not, it’s time to hit the yard sales. First, read our toy reselling tips so you know how to make a profit.

81. Clothing Reseller: Yes, you can resell clothes just like books and toys!

83. Flea Market Worker: Want to sell in person? Get a table at a flea market and start selling used items, handmade crafts and other treasures.

Read our flea market guide to get the most out of your wares. Depending on the flea market rules, you might need to work with an adult — or someone over 18 — but that doesn’t mean you can’t share in the profits!

84. Yard Sale Organizer: Plenty of families want to have summer yard sales, but balk at the hassle of setting everything up, pricing the items and managing the table for an entire weekend. Why not offer your services as a yard sale organizer?

What You Can Earn

Kyle Taylor earned about $750 a month selling used books, and your earnings will likely be dependent on how much you sell and whether you find great items for resale.

How to Get the Jobs

Find something to resell and start selling!

The Family Business: Keeping Money in the Family

Parents are often a teen’s first employers, starting with the exchange of allowance for chores. Here are a few more “grown-up” job opportunities.

The Jobs

85. Help the Family Business: If you have a family business and your parents or relatives haven’t already approached you about working in the business, take the initiative and ask if they can use your help.

86. Cook Family Meals for Extra Allowance: Know how to cook? Offer your parents a trade: you’ll handle all the family meals for the summer — that means shopping, cooking and cleanup — in exchange for what you agree is a fair wage.

87. Ask Parents What They Need Done: Chances are, every parent has a long to-do list of jobs: cleaning out the garage, scrubbing behind the refrigerator and other time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks.

Tell your folks you are ready to take on this work for a little extra cash.

What You Can Earn

If you are working for the family business, you deserve at least minimum wage.

For odd jobs, work out what feels fair. Cleaning out the garage should be worth at least $100, right?

How to Get the Jobs

Talk to your folks.

Volunteer Work: Do Good and Good Will Follow

Not all summer jobs have to be paying gigs.

Get a volunteer job and give back to your community — and did we mention it’ll look great on your college applications?

The Jobs

88. Political Campaigning:Election season is in full force, which means that there are plenty of opportunities for you to support political candidates. Door knocking, phone banking and other jobs abound!

89. Docent: Do you like history, science or art? Become a docent at a local museum.

When I was a docent, we got to dress up like local historical figures and share our stories with museum guests.

90. Intern: Get to know the working world and test out a potential career by interning at a local business.

100. Fanfic Writer: You don’t have to be over 18 to write fanfic, but you do have to be over 18 to write for Kindle Worlds, where writers get paid for writing fanfic set in universes such as The 100, Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars.

What You Can Earn

Up to $19 an hour as an Uber driver, minimum wage or above at a call center, varying wages for Mechanical Turk and online website testing or content jobs.

How to Get the Jobs

Apply online, pick a country to WWOOF in, write an amazing story about Spencer Hastings going to a murder mystery dinner where she finds herself solving an actual murder.

Your Turn: What jobs did you have as a teenager? If you are a teen, which jobs sound the most interesting?

Nicole Dieker is a freelance copywriter and essayist. She writes regularly for The Billfold on the intersection of freelance writing and personal finance, and her work has also appeared in The Toast, Yearbook Office and Boing Boing.

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